[78-L] Rust's Entertainment Discography

[Michael Biel]

The deficiencies of the 2nd edition of the CED were being discussed with 
dismay the week the book was published, and caused me to not get it for 
20years until I realized that if I acted FAST I could get a a copy for 
less than I had expected.  (I also was able to find an inexpensive copy 
of the first edition for Leah, and some are still out there -- one 
especially cheap if you act FAST.)

Although Rich Markow might be able to shed more light on this subject 
because he was a closer friend of Alllen Debus and discussed this with 
him, I understand that Allen was given very little say in the revision 
process.  First of all, in addition to the people missing, notice that 
also missing from the 2nd edition that were in the first are all the 
Victor prefixes and the Columbia W prefix is also missing.  You all know 
that I have been very vocal in condemning this practice for decades.  I 
have heard that Rush had gotten word out that his reasons were that they 
did not denote LOCATION of the recording and that the respective 
companies never included them on the labels in the instances where they 
included matrix numbers.  The latter is a LIE because I have many 
instances of Victor Personal pressings and broadcast transcriptions 
where the prefixes are printed on the labels, plus BRITISH Columbia 
included W on the labels for both U.S. and British recordings -- how the 
hell could he have missed THAT???  As for location, doesn't something 
like BVE just SCREAM United States?  And I suppose that size of unissued 
or rejected recordings doesn't matter.  It DOES.  And I have shown some 
important instances of where the specific recording system had crucial 
significance.

Now to Cary's initial remarks of the missing people, SOME are discussed 
in the preface, as were some in the preface to the first edition, but 
there is no explanation of those who were cut this time but not the 
first.  Rust seems to have a thing against composers if they mainly 
record their own songs, but I guess Sam Coslow is allowed because a few 
records were of other song writers' songs.  Itseems obvious that Rust 
did not know as much about American entertainers as he did British.  
Where js Monroe Silver?  He appeared in films and radio in addition to 
recording.  We all could name some deserving American performers with 
all of the credentials of many others who were included.  But there are 
dozens of British entertainers who did not make a single recording 
issued by an American label but are included because among all of the 
listed British appearances they might have made a few appearances in an 
American theater -- and probably not all that successful at that.  In 
just the D's:  Danielle Darrieux?  Gaby Deslys?  Dorothy Dickson?  Alice 
Delysia?  If they were successful in an American appearance why didn't 
any company here release anything of them?  Even Florence Desmond for 
all her fame did not appear to have an American release.

We need to make a list of every performer missing and added to the 
second edition. Has anyone ever done it?

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

On 8/14/2011 1:45 PM, Julian Vein wrote:
> On 14/08/11 18:34, Cary Ginell wrote:
>> Just got a copy of the second edition of Rust's Entertainment Discography and noticed that although it is a third longer than the first edition, some entries have been eliminated, including those of composers like George Gershwin, Victor Herbert, and Cole Porter. I had thought that with the second edition, I'd be able to sell the first edition, but not without these entries, which I consider essential for my research. Does anyone know of other categories or entries that were deleted from the first edition and what the most important additions for the 2nd ed. are? Looks like I'm going to have to keep both on hand.
>>
>> Cary Ginell
>>    		 	   		
>> _______________________________________________
>>
> On the other hand, if the second edition had been a total improvement on
> the first, then that volume wouldn't be worth that much!
>
> Rust also totally omitted Todd Rollins from his later edition of Jazz
> Records, although some have sufficient jazz content to be included.
>
>         Julian Vein